Anne Milgram was sworn in as New Jersey’s
57th Attorney General on June 29, 2007 after
serving for the previous 17 months as the
First Assistant Attorney General. As the State’s
chief law enforcement officer, Milgram heads
the 9,000-person Department of Law and Public
Safety, one of the largest agencies in New
Jersey state government.

The
department includes nine divisions as well
as independent commissions and boards. The
Attorney General oversees the state’s
criminal justice system, the Division of State
Police, and defends the state against lawsuits.

Milgram has spearheaded investigations into
gang violence, public corruption, gun trafficking,
and mortgage foreclosure and debt reduction
schemes. Investigations have led to state
grand jury indictments of state legislators,
mayors and municipal council members on a
variety of misconduct and conspiracy charges.
Milgram forged an unprecedented partnership
with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms
and Explosives (AFT) to trace the ownership
of guns used in the commission of crimes in
New Jersey and she is in charge of the implementation
of the Governor’s Strategy for Safe
Streets and Neighborhoods, which is aimed
at street gangs and violent criminals.

A
series of initiatives undertaken by county
prosecutors throughout the state in 2008 and
2009 have led to the arrest of nearly 5,000
criminals, charged with a variety of offenses
including murder, attempted murder, illegal
narcotics distribution and possession, and
illegal weapons charges. Milgram successfully
advocated for tougher penalties for the illegal
possession of weapons and has the leading
role in coordinating crime prevention programs
to help at-risk youth and convicted offenders
re-entering society.

In
2007, she launched an affirmative litigation
section in the Division of Law to aggressively
pursue legal action to protect the public
in New Jersey. The section has pursued mortgage
fraud cases against nearly 100 defendants
who attempted to exploit homeowners facing
foreclosure. She also spearheaded New Jersey’s
first-in-the-nation statewide mandatory mortgage
foreclosure mediation program, which provides
homeowners in foreclosure with free housing
counselors and attorneys to help workout loan
modifications with mortage servicers.

She
has pursued both criminal and civil investigations
in policing the Internet and created a first
in the nation reporting mechanism for the
users of social networking sites to report
instances of on-line abuse and cyber bullying.

Milgram
began her career as an assistant district
attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s
office in New York in September 1997. In 2001,
she went to work in the criminal section of
the United States Department of Justice's
civil rights division, where she rose to become
the lead federal prosecutor in the nation
for human trafficking crimes. Milgram was
awarded the Department of Justice Special
Commendation for Outstanding Service in December
2004 and the Director’s Award in September
2006. Milgram left the Department of Justice
in 2005 and became counsel to then U.S. Senator
Jon Corzine and returned to New Jersey when
Corzine was elected governor.

Milgram
graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers College
in 1992 with a degree in English and political
science, and received a master of philosophy
degree in social and political theory in
1993 from the University of Cambridge in
England. She received her law degree from
New York University in 1996 and clerked
for U.S. District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson
in Trenton from 1996 to 1997.